Communication among host computers via the Internet may employ the internet protocol (IP) for routing data packets from a first computer to a second computer. The communication may comprise a service request from a client application running or executing on the first computer directed to a server application executing on the second computer, for example. The packets are routed from the first computer through the Internet to the second computer by routers based on an IP address of the second computer contained in the packets. The routers are computers executing a routing program or application that the router uses to determine where to send received packets. The routing is typically based on routing tables that define preferred routes associated with specific IP addresses. Typically, the last router involved in routing a packet determines that the second computer addressed by the IP address of the routed packet is located on a subnet linked to the last router. The last router determines the media access control (MAC) address of the second computer, for example by executing an address resolution protocol (ARP) request. The last router then strips off an IP header from the packet and sends the data component of the packet onto the local area network (LAN) addressed with the MAC address of the second computer, for example an Ethernet address. The first computer may not know the IP address of the second computer and may look up the IP address based on a known name of the second computer, for example using a domain name service (DNS).